The subject matter disclosed herein relates to fuel injectors, and, more particularly, to fuel injectors for gasifiers.
A variety of combustion systems employ fuel injectors to inject a fuel into a combustion chamber. For example, an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant includes a gasifier with one or more fuel injectors. The fuel injectors supply a fuel, such as an organic feedstock, into the gasifier along with oxygen and steam to generate a syngas. In general, combustion occurs downstream from the fuel injectors. However, the proximity of a flame and/or heat from combustion can damage and/or reduce the life of the fuel injectors, particularly if the fuel injectors exceed certain temperatures. Accordingly, a water cooling coil may be wrapped around each fuel injector to provide water cooling. Unfortunately, the water cooling coil can cause significant thermal gradients in the fuel injector, thereby increasing the possibility of stress crack formation in the fuel injector.